29 comments:

I love those how those earth tones make Woody and the Flinstones and Donald pop out all the more. And they don't give you a headache.

Preschool TV is all about flashy colors (only prime and secondary colors, too) which to me is like replacing a kid's music with pigs squealing. I've been in the field for a few years, and it hurts the eye. Thanks for giving us something to aspire to!

p.s. - i realized you have "post moderation" was on so sorry for sending you the same post twice about Amid's project.

So R&S was one of those shows that changed my life (you hear that a lot). In fifth grade (1991) I made my dad buy a VCR with a "Pause" option that wouldn't fuck of the screen so I could copy frames from your show.

I bought the Wild Cartoon Kingdom issue and almost cried. Then I made a collage out of the images that's still hanging in my parents' house.

In high school I would sit down and copy pages of Donald Duck and Scrooge comics.

I got my hands on Shamus Culhane's books and copied those exercises every day - which pushed me to draw quick and loose.

Then college started happening and I didn't know any people in animation, so i thought I'd go be an English major. So i put down the cartoon books.

Then I became all pro-active and transferred to NYU Film and majored in animation. I got some high-profile jobs at annoying kids shows here in NY ... and i started writing for Animation Magazine, ONLY pitching stories about creators and artists (NOT execs)!

Now my 'toon skills are a little rusty, so I'm reverting to the "fuck if I struggle, I'm just going to draw" mentality from grade school and high school.

One of these days I'd love to buy you a drink and chat with you for an hour. Reading your old blog entries raises more questions!

Wow what a bunch of cool backgrounds! Its so clear to see what you're talking about and i can see why you don't like the airbrushed edges, heck after seeing those ones i'm ready to ABORT my lunch!

I'm big on playing with colours. I got this amazing book on colour you have to get your mittens on, its called 'The DESIGNER'S GUIDE to COLOR COMBINATIONS' by Leslie Cabarga.

Its like a mini bible to me and i use it to inspire everything i put colour to. It has all these neat colours from the Victorian age right through the 1900s too! Lots of soft and sometimes VERY contrasty combinations.

Oooh, it's like a Greatest Hits! I love seeing the Gorillaz stuff in there and it links to a great post - because it shows that there are some good things being done these days. It's not all crap. I personally adore Hewlett's style.

Unrelated but I heard last week that there is a new Mr.Magoo series being made. At least I think I heard that. Boulder in Ireland (they did production work on Fosters and El Tigre - actually pretty good Flash stuff) are crewing up for a show and I think it's Mr.Magoo. Can anyone confirm or deny these rumours I'm spreading?

I'm a big fan of Magoo from my childhood so I'll be watching this with curiosity.

You finally made me get it, JohnK; thanks. I'm not an artist, so I have trouble following some of your analyses of the visuals in cartoons. But after viewing all of your approved examples, the colors in the bad examples hurt my eyes on sight. Never even noticed when I saw some of those on the big screen...

...and that Hercules screenshot is probably the most horrible color I've ever seen. That gives me a headache. I thought it was a joke at first then realized that's the ACTUAL colors used in the film. Holy crap... unbelievable.

I like to paint and stuff!! I'd love to give it a go!! anyway you can have a look here, I'd been happy to get any feedback from you! you can also take a look at this place to see more paintings of mine...the cartoon looks like it's coming along great!!! can't wait to see it!hehehe!!!

Y'know, my impression of Mighty Mouse the New Adventures backgrounds is of congested comps, telescoping distortions, no depth of field, and a pallette which comes close to that which you disdain, no?

Can't think of any of these pieces you like without the developments in modernist painting fifty some years before. By the late 40's America had inherited the European avant-garde due to Nazism (think Stravinsky in Hollywood), and its public began to accept modernist aesthetics as it worked its way into the popular conciousness, (Duchamp tried as early as 1917, and was ridiculed by ham'n'eggs americana). Why not look outside of the history of animated cartoons to the precedents which helped determine them? How 'bout posts on Henri Rousseau, Ludwig Miedner, Yves Tanguy, Miro, etc.?

Hey John, I'm interested in potentially doing work for you, but have no idea where I stand with my ability. I look up to Great painters who've worked for you, like Scott Wills and Bill Wray, and would at least like a bit of a critique on where I'm at, and what areas I can improve.

Please go ahead and tear me to shreads, as I want to simply get better at this.